


Scoops Troop, Over and Out

by Kristanella17



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Original Character(s), Stranger Things Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-24 12:21:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19723588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kristanella17/pseuds/Kristanella17
Summary: Kristina Graham decides to take a summer job at 'Scoops Ahoy!' to help pay for college tuition, but ends up finding trouble when she joins Steve "The Hair" Harrington and his friend, Dustin, on a mission to take down an army of evil Russians.  StevexOC.  Season 3 Spoilers.





	1. Chapter 1

" _Listen to the Russian! We're trying to translate the Russian!"_ Dustin shouted as Kristina made her way into the back workroom of _Scoops, Ahoy!_

For the past few hours, Steve and a younger boy named Dustin were hanging out in the back of the store listening to some weird recording of a Russian guy speaking. Kristina didn't say anything at first since she wanted to respect the fact the two boys thought they were working in secrecy, but she had reached her point in the day where she desperately needed a break.

"Steve, I really need you up front. I can't deal with it anymore," she vented frustratedly before turning to look at the dry erase board taped to the wall.

"What on Earth-?" she mumbled as she looked back and forth between the two boys and the board with Russian-to-English alphabet translation written across it.

"Hey, Graham, did you know that the Russians use a totally different alphabet than we do?" Steve questioned with a mouthful of banana.

_Of course she knew,_ he thought to himself. Kristina had been one of the top students in their grade at Hawkins High. She was only stuck working the ice cream shop with him during the summer to help pay for her college tuition.

"Could you please give him a little bit longer? We're doing something really important back here," Dustin tried to bargain. Kristina pursed her lips together as she walked over to look at the book on their table next to the cassette player. She picked it up and read the title aloud.

" _Russian to English Translation Dictionary,_ " she said before flipping through some pages then gently tossing the book back down onto the table.

"Play the tape," Kristina said with a slight tug at her lips.

"What? Don't tell me you speak Russian?!" Dustin exclaimed, a bit too excitedly causing Kristina's confidence to fade slightly. She gave a small head shake as her pursed lips formed into a regretful grin.

"No fluently, but I learned the basics for an AP Russian History elective," she confessed as she grabbed a chair to pull up to the table across from Dustin. Steve couldn't help but let out an exasperated sigh.

_Of course she did,_ he thought.

* * *

Kristina excitedly pulled back the sliding window that separated the back of the serving counter and the employee work room.

"We have our first sentence," she told Steve, joyously. He immediately perked up from his bored, slouched over resting position across the counter.

"No way. That was quick," he replied in disbelief, "but I guess I shouldn't expect anything less from you," he finished in a slight mumble. Kristina furrowed her brows. She wasn't sure if he meant that as a compliment or an insult.

Steve and Kristina, although they were in the same graduating class, they never really spoke to one another until they began working together at the mall. Even then, it was difficult for the two to carry a conversation. It took weeks of slow closing shifts for the two to finally warm up to one another enough to fill the silence with small talk.

"The week is long," Kristina said in a terrible Russian accent. This time Steve furrowed his brows.

"That's it?" he asked, not bothering to hide his clear disappointment. Kristina scoffed.

"Sorry that the secret Russian translation wasn't up to your expectations, Harrington," she responded, bitterly, before quickly sliding the glass window back into place leaving Steve with a sigh of disappointment.

He didn't mean to come across as rude, especially to someone as nice as Kristina, but sometimes at work he couldn't help it. Facing the ugly truth that his future wasn't turning out like he had imagined was much harder when she was around.

In high school, Steve didn't pay Kristina a bit of attention. Sure, he had seen her around, but he had more important things to worry about; or so he thought. Now, like some ironic twist of fate, the boy who wasn't even accepted into Tech was slinging ice cream with the girl who got into her first choice school.

The worst part about the whole situation wasn't that he had to work all summer with one of the smartest kids in his class; no, that he could live with. The worst part was, each day, he became more and more intrigued by her.


	2. Chapter 2

Kristina, Dustin, and Steve stood lined up beside each other as they stared at the words written across the dry erase board. "The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west," they all read aloud in sync.

"It's nonsense," Steve mumbled to himself in disappointment, lowering his gaze and shaking his head. He was the first to walk out of the back room.

It was now after hours at the mall and the only thing the two creamery employees had left to do was lock up. Kristina and Dustin gave a quick look to one another before following.

"I mean, it just can't be right," Steve noted as he pulled close the metal security gate and locked it.

"Are you questioning my translation skills, Harrington?" Kristina asked with a hint of sass to her voice as Steve rose from his crouching position and turned to face her. The two employees locked eyes as Kristina placed her hand on her hip and glared upward at the boy who stood a few inches taller than her.

A few months ago, Kristina never would have talked to Steve Harrington that way. A few months ago, Kristina never would have talked to Steve Harrington _at all_ , and here she was challenging him to question her hard work. She, then, couldn't fight the small, prideful smirk that crept across her face.

"All I'm saying is it just doesn't make sense, _Graham_ ," Steve replied; speaking every word slowly and condescendingly as he took a half step closer to Kristina. Her confident demeanor immediately fell as she stared up at Steve with wide eyes of surprise due to his close proximity. It was now Steve's turn to smirk. Yep, he still had it.

"It's obviously code," Dustin piped up, his voice instantly snapping Kristina out of the short trance she had fallen under. The boy pushed his way between the two as he lead the way toward the exit of the mall.

"What do you mean, 'a code,'?" Steve asked as he and Kristina rushed to catch up.

"It's too specific. It's got to be a code for something," Dustin explained. With a deep breath, Kristina forced herself to redirect her thoughts from Steve back to the mission at hand.

"And if they need a code for their message then it must be something important; something they don't want anyone else to know," she brainstormed.

As she and Dustin continued to talk, they eventually noticed Steve's absence. They turned around to find him kneeling next to a quarter machine ride.

"Steve, come on, we don't have time for that right now," Kristina teased causing Dustin to snicker.

"A quarter-," he called out, ignoring the girl's lightheartedness. "I need a quarter. Do you have one?" he asked, urgently. Between Dustin and Kristina, the trio found a quarter and put it into the machine.

"Listen," Steve ordered as he rested his hand against the machine. Kristina and Dustin looked at each other in confusion before looking back to Steve. The music from the ride played a few seconds longer before Dustin spoke up.

"Holy shit," he gasped. Kristina looked at him in surprise. "The music...the music!" the younger boy exclaimed as he began to dig through his bag for the tape recorder. "It's the exact same song on the recording," he informed Kristina right before he hit the play button. Much to her surprise, the music matched up perfectly.

"Is it possible for them to have a similar ride in Russia?" Kristina wondered. They had to try to keep an open mind, and look for any and all coincidences.

"Indiana Flyer in Russia?" Steve asked as he read off the name of the company listed on the machine.

"Ok, so what does this mean?" Dustin questioned, turning off the tape recorder. Steve stood up and looked back and forth between his friends.

"It means, whatever this _code_ is," he paused to look directly at Kristina, "it's coming from here."


	3. Chapter 3

"So, do you see anything?" Dustin asked as he looked around the crowded food court in the mall. Steve was standing beside him looking through a pair of binoculars while the two boys stood, not very discreetly, behind an artificial plant.

"I guess I don't totally know what I'm looking for," Steve confessed, despite still continuing to survey the area.

"Evil Russians," Dustin stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah, exactly. I don't know what an _'evil Russian'_ looks like," Steve countered as the two agrued back and forth momentarily until the older boy found himself distracted.

"I can't believe it," he gasped, keeping his eyes locked into the binoculars.

"What-?" Dustin quickly asked, aching in anticipation as he reached for the binoculars.

"Anna Jacobi is talking with that meathead, Mark Lewinsky," Steve scoffed while pulling away from his younger friend so he could keep an eye on the girl he was spying on. "Oh, Jesus Christ, whatever happened to standards?!"

"Worst. Spy. Ever. I'm taking these away from you," Dustin commanded in a frustrated tone. He reached over and pulled the strap from around Steve's neck, taking the binoculars for himself.

"Besides, I don't know why you're wasting your time with all these girls when you have the perfect one right in front of you," Dustin mumbled, now looking into the binoculars.

"What? Are you talking about Kristina? Because I know you can't be talking about her," Steve replied sternly. Sure, over the past few weeks he and Kristina had gotten to know each other a little better, but it was mostly just small talk to fill downtime at the shop.

"Yeah, she's awesome. What other girls do you know who would translate a secretive Russian code and cover for you at work while we scope out the mall for said evil Russians?"

"She-she's not my type," Steve defensively replied a bit too quickly.

"And what exactly is your type? _Not awesome?_ " Dustin teased. Steve quickly turned his head in the opposite direction of the boy beside him, causing his hair to fall in his eyes. He brushed it away as he tried to focus on anything but the conversation at hand.

"Come on, Henderson," Steve retorted after a few seconds of silence, growing flustered by being unable to shake the topic. He quickly turned back to face Dustin, "We went to school together for four years, and not once did she ever do _anything_ besides school work; no parties, no sports, not even a freaking club. She's...dull. Besides, she's going to college after this summer."

As Steve spoke, he couldn't help but let his gaze wander over to the ice cream shop. Through the crowds of people, he could see Kristina scooping a sample for Lucas Sinclair's younger sister, Erica. A slight tug pulled at the corner of his lips forming an amused smile due to her aggravated facial expression.

"You call translating Russian to save the fate of the world, 'dull'? And who cares if she didn't do any extracurricular activities in high school? This isn't a college resume. If you can carry on a conversation with her, then maybe she isn't as dull as you'd like to believe," Dustin lectured, peeking out from behind the binoculars to find Steve staring at him with narrowed eyes.

Was _Dustin Henderson_ trying to give _Steve Harrington_ advice on how to get a girl? Steve would have laughed if he hadn't been so shocked, yet insulted, by the revelation.

"Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you get a girlfriend this summer at your Know-Nothing camp thanks to my advice?" Steve questioned in a patronizing manner. "Because that's how this works. _I give you the advice,_ you follow through. Got it pea, brain?"

Steve Harrington didn't need any advice on how to get a girl. He especially didn't need any advice concerning Kristina Graham.


	4. Chapter 4

"Wait, wait," Kristina gasped for breath between laughter, "you actually thought the Jazzercise instructor was an evil Russian?" she managed to force out before succumbing to another fit of giggles.

The boys had just returned from their failed stakeout mission when they called Kristina over to an empty table in the shop. Unfortunately for them, they then had to explain why they stalked a suspicious looking trainor to his own workout studio.

"What? He was everything Dustin said to look for in an evil Russian! Tall? Check. Blonde? Check. Not smiling? Check!"

Steve's explanation only caused Kristina to laugh harder, and despite feeling a bit sheepish he, too, couldn't help but let out a slight chuckle as he watched Kristina wipe a tear from her eye.

"In our defense, he was wearing sunglasses indoors. Why would someone do that unless they were up to no good?"

Dustin looked over to Steve, hoping his partner in crime would help defend his logic, but the curly haired boy only found his older friend staring at the girl sitting across from them. A knowing smile crept across his face as an idea popped into his head.

"Anyway enough about that. I think I'm going to grab some lunch in the food court. I'll check in with you two later," Dustin quickly excused himself before either had the opportunity to object.

The sudden departure caused Kristina's aching smile to finally subside.

"I hope I didn't hurt his feelings. I didn't mean to," she confessed, now feeling sincerely remorseful about her reaction.

Truth be told, she was becoming quite fond of Dustin, and she could see why Steve enjoyed hanging out with him so much in spite of their age difference.

Steve, on the other hand, was silent as he remained lost in thought and staring at Kristina. Yeah, Henderson could be a bit sensitive from time to time, but there was no way he was embarrassed enough by their minor mishap to run away as hastily as he had.

"Maybe I should go apologize," Kristina began as she moved to stand up. The sound of her voice managed to knock Steve back to reality. He swiftly placed his hand on top of one of Kristina's which she had rested on the table in the process of standing.

Freezing in place, Kristina looked down at Steve's hand lying across hers before lifting her eyes back up to meet his. Realizing what he had done, Steve instantly pulled his hand back and cleared his throat before speaking.

"I wouldn't worry about it. He's a pretty tough kid. Besides, it was actually pretty funny," Steve admitted with an amused grin. Kristina smiled softly, grateful for Steve's attempt at easing her mind, so she decided to sit back down at the table.

"Well, while you two were off on your wild goose chase, I've been arguing with children over free samples. I think it's time we swapped," she smugly informed, her facial expression morphing into one a bit more mischievous. The faint trace of a smile fell from Steve's lips.

"I mean, we don't have to." Steve raised his eyebrows as he leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table. Kristina let out a laugh at his weak attempt of bargaining.

"Yes. Yes we do."

With a groan, Steve stood from the table and reluctantly made his way behind the counter.


	5. Chapter 5

With only 5 minutes left until close, _Scoops, Ahoy!_ was dead. Kristina and Steve both sat in the back room with the divider windows open in case a last minute customer decided to make a visit.

Steve silently stared at Kristina while she focused solely on the paper in front of her. He was hypnotized by how many times she had read the phrase to herself without ever losing concentration. Was that how she was able to make such good grades? Forced memorization.

"...a trip to China sounds nice...tread lightly," she whispered to herself, rereading the message for the hundredth time.

Although she was able to focus on trying to crack the code, Kristina could feel Steve's eyes burning a hole through her. She knew he was staring at her, and up until then she had been able to ignore it but her will was beginning to weaken.

"Could you stop staring at me?" she mumbled without taking her eyes off the paper in front of her.

"How do you know I'm staring at you?"

The smugness in his voice caused Kristina to raise her eyesight while keeping her face completely still. Steve couldn't help but notice how long her eyelashes were. The drastic contrast between her dark colored lashes and bright blue irises caused Kristina's leer to come across more mesmerizing rather than intimidating.

Before she could respond, the two heard someone enter the shop.

"Steve, it's cool if you drive me home tonight, right?" A familiar voice called out compelling the two to finally break eye contact.

"Yeah, sure, but you have to help close. Got it?" Steve questioned as he stood from the table. Kristina moved to follow, but just then there was a knock at their back door used for deliveries. She glanced down at her watch as she made her way over to the door. Deliveries were running awfully late tonight, she thought.

"Hi," Kristina greeted with a friendly smile, signing for the box from the delivery man. The two made small, idle chat as they exchanged the signature for a large cardboard box. It was then when realization came over her. Right there in front of her, written on the delivery man's uniform read the word 'Lynx.' Kristina paused. It couldn't be that obvious, could it?

"Have a nice night," the delivery man said before turning to leave. Leaning out into the hallway, Kristina saw a white illustration on the back of the man's shirt. It was a Lynx; a cat.

Her heart began to pound in her chest as adrenaline pumped through her veins. Without thinking to shut the delivery door, Kristina stormed through the back room; grabbing her notebook off the table in the process.

"Kristina?" Steve called as he watched her quicken her pace out of the shop and into the empty food court. Dustin and Steve made a silent exchange of glances before they decided to chase after her.

"The code, we swear it came from inside the mall right?" Kristina asked from over her shoulder once the two boys caught up with her.

"Yeah," Steve answered, although his tone of voice sounded more like a question in itself.

"Look around," Kristina ordered, "A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly," she repeated once more. Although the two boys weren't following her train of thought, they did as they were asked. After a few seconds of silence, Dustin spoke.

"China!" he shouted so loudly it caused both Steve and Kristina to jump. "Right there! Imperial Panda!"

A bright, proud smile came across Kristina's face as she continued to look around at the other stores in sight. And there it was; _tread lightly_ at Kaufman Shoes.

"Kaufman Shoes," she smiled. It was coming together. They only needed one more piece.

"The clock." Dustin and Kristina turned toward Steve to find him staring at the giant clock on the wall.

"When blue meets yellow in the west," Steve repeated, his eyes still glued to the clock. There on the clock, the two hands were indeed blue and yellow. He turned to look at Kristina. "Yeah, I was listening," he teased with a hint of sarcasm causing Kristina to purse her lips together, trying to hide her smile.

"If that's true, then we don't have a lot of time. You two need to hurry and close up the shop," Dustin urged.

"Why does that matter? What are we going to do? We don't even know where to start," Steve argued as he began to make his way back to _Scoops_. Kristina looked around once more, surveying the area.

"I have an idea."


End file.
